Rob's Rebellion as the Last Dragon

[TankRush]

I decided to give this a try today, playing Rhaegar instead of his crazypants father, just for something new. And, after a few tries where things just went awful now I've gotten a pretty good series of events. Some Hedge Knights arrived, I got Gregarious from giving them a place to stay, and Just from letting one wounded in a makeshift tourney stay in my castle until he re overed. And Elia jus died from natural causes.

I'm not even 6 months in to the game, so if I can pull out a win, I'm actually set pretty well for the suspected love-story to play out with a (kinda) happy ending. If I win.

And I'd love some suggestions for how I do that.

 

[yezhanquan]

As it is, if you are playing as Rhaegar, your situation is not good. Dragonstone is puny in terms of troop count, and the Reach and Dorne can't come to help you quickly, not to mention Aerys's lousy rule means that the Crownlands cannot cough up the troops you need. Also, the loyalists have great difficulty in pulling Tywin into the war on their side (As Doran, I tried marrying Oberyn to Cersei, and it didn't quite work. Benjen to Cersei? The Westerlands turn out their men in a jiffy.)

To win, you probably need to get Aerys out of the way ASAP, or somehow assassinate Robert, as he is the one with the claim.

There was a previous thread detailing how the odds are stacked against the loyalists. With the current setup, if every side plays to the best of their abilities, the rebels will almost always win.

 

[Summercat]

As it is, if you are playing as Rhaegar, your situation is not good. Dragonstone is puny in terms of troop count, and the Reach and Dorne can't come to help you quickly, not to mention Aerys's lousy rule means that the Crownlands cannot cough up the troops you need. Also, the loyalists have great difficulty in pulling Tywin into the war on their side (As Doran, I tried marrying Oberyn to Cersei, and it didn't quite work. Benjen to Cersei? The Westerlands turn out their men in a jiffy.)

To win, you probably need to get Aerys out of the way ASAP, or somehow assassinate Robert, as he is the one with the claim.

There was a previous thread detailing how the odds are stacked against the loyalists. With the current setup, if every side plays to the best of their abilities, the rebels will almost always win.

Well, look at the situation, sans mechanics: The Loyalists are screwed as long as Aerys sits on the Iron Throne. He's insane and a bad ruler. He simply cannot rally enough men in the Crownlands against the forces of the Stormlands, the North, and the Vale. As said, you've got Dorne and Reach being too far to aid you in time, and you have the Lannisters sitting out the war waiting for the best advantage, while the Iron Islands aren't going to make a place for it either way.

The Loyalists almost always lose because they can't concentrate enough manpower in time to face the Rebels. With Robert's claim being pressed by so many, and the Loyalists having a weak commander and weaker forces...

The Battle of the Trident was really the only chance that the Loyalists had to defeat the Rebels, if Rhaegar took out Robert.

This is sans-mechanics. With mechanics... Assassinate Robert, or Aerys, or both. With Rhaegar and his better stats on the Iron Throne you can pull more troops from the Crownlands, and possibly stall the Rebels in time for Dorne and Reach troops to reach the Crownlands.

 

[yezhanquan]

In canon, Robert did come close to being captured at least once before the Trident. I believe it was at the Battle of the Bells, where Jon Connington refused to burn the town to the ground to minimise casualties.

In-game, Ned's army starts way away from the centre. It's Hoster and Jon whose troops are the real problems, and Tywin's once a marriage alliance is made involving Cersei.

 

[TankRush]

It's too bad that ass Tywin married Cersei to his youngest brother, that would have been a goodish alliance. I did decide to marry my daughter to Tyrion.

In the end though, after about umpteen tries, I managed to knock Aerys off the throne and into the grave in good time (why the hell do Varys and Pycelle disapeer after that happens? I could use their help, but maybe it's just a bug).

From there, and after many more tries, There was one that I managed to start grinding down Rob's armies, by getting my 6-7 thousand grouped up with Dorne's and the Reach's 10k stacks, against Roberts big 26k army. I won naturally, with the awesome Kingsguard of the era, and Rhaegar, on my side. From there it was generally mop-up work because Hoster and Jon didn't form up together.

And when I got to the Tower of Joy, I was greeted by a happy and alive Lyanna Stark, and a new son. And decided to take her back to King's Landing and make her my wife (as per the opening post, Elia died early of natural causes), Robert got sent to the wall. I pardoned the other Lords paramount. Tyrion gets to marry a princess and maybe Tywin won't treat him so bad over the next few years. Jaime keeps is hand. Ned died though, so now Benjen is Lord Paramount of the North and I think he might be married to Catelyn too. He's still pissed at me for kidnapping his sister, even though I'm his brother in law now. Daenerys was never born either, instead I now have a bastard half-brother that the new Meister is the father of. And Arthur Dayne is in charge of the Kingsguard now.

Kinda ran out of goals, so I guess I'm just going to try and keep things 'pure' blooded Targaryen.

 

[yourworstnightm]

It's too bad that ass Tywin married Cersei to his youngest brother, that would have been a goodish alliance. I did decide to marry my daughter to Tyrion.

In the end though, after about umpteen tries, I managed to knock Aerys off the throne and into the grave in good time (why the hell do Varys and Pycelle disapeer after that happens? I could use their help, but maybe it's just a bug).

From there, and after many more tries, There was one that I managed to start grinding down Rob's armies, by getting my 6-7 thousand grouped up with Dorne's and the Reach's 10k stacks, against Roberts big 26k army. I won naturally, with the awesome Kingsguard of the era, and Rhaegar, on my side. From there it was generally mop-up work because Hoster and Jon didn't form up together.

And when I got to the Tower of Joy, I was greeted by a happy and alive Lyanna Stark, and a new son. And decided to take her back to King's Landing and make her my wife (as per the opening post, Elia died early of natural causes), Robert got sent to the wall. I pardoned the other Lords paramount. Tyrion gets to marry a princess and maybe Tywin won't treat him so bad over the next few years. Jaime keeps is hand. Ned died though, so now Benjen is Lord Paramount of the North and I think he might be married to Catelyn too. He's still pissed at me for kidnapping his sister, even though I'm his brother in law now. Daenerys was never born either, instead I now have a bastard half-brother that the new Meister is the father of. And Arthur Dayne is in charge of the Kingsguard now.

Kinda ran out of goals, so I guess I'm just going to try and keep things 'pure' blooded Targaryen.

'Pure blooded' Targaryen. Is that just arranging incest marriages, or does it also contain trying to get as insane characters as possible on the throne?

 

[TankRush]

Mostly just trying to keep them High Valyrian ethnicity, since the Targs are pretty much the only ones who have that.

And remember, there's two sides to that coin.

His kids with Elia don't have any of the traits. But the 5 since, with Lyanna have gotten Quick, Possessed, Diligent, and Paranoid, in that order. Our tower love-child didn't catch the crazy (or the special). And right now we have the heir apparent Aegon, Elia's son, incest-married to Daenerys the Quick and Beautiful first daughter of Lyanna Stark. Oh yeah, Viserys's son is also Quick, I'm keeping him on hand since his dad got exiled.

 

[mavregade]

1. If playing as Rhaegar, FIRST thing sail your army to Gulltown to destroy Yohn Royce's army. Easy and quick victory, has the benefit of diverting the Vale Army into the east for longer.

2. Sail the army back down to the Blackwater Bay and attach it to the largest loyalist army.

 

[PseudoCatfish]

Rhaegar is one of my favorite starts and when I feel gamey I almost always win... assassinate Aerys and move your troops to the south of the crownlands to link up with the 40k of Dorne and the Reach. Smash Robert's forces that should still be separate from the Tully/Vale host and you should be good to smash the Riverlands, North and the Vale.

 

[yezhanquan]

I'm pretty sure in canon, Rhaegar already had plans to force his father to abdicate, and combining your troops is a valid tactic. If not, the rebels will do the same with their stacks. Good luck winning if they got to that stage.

 

[TankRush]

Well now I have a new challenge. Getting fat-faces out of the bloodline, without losing High Valyrian features. Still playing Rhaegar, in his 60's now (he doesn't have a shred of close combat skill left). And his eldest grandchild is only half Targaryen (no one knows it, because I only spotted it by chance after activating charinfo).

This is going to be annoying, but I think I have enough high valyrians left that I can pull it off.